TENTACLES is the Valentine’s Day episode of the Hulu horror anthology Into the Dark. This episode had a lot of good elements but also a few slower moments where I wanted it to pick up. If you enjoy horror stories with supernatural elements including lots of body horror, then this one should work for you.

Just a quick reminder: The season 1 Valentine’s Day episode of Into the Dark was titled “Down” and currently has a rating of 6.5 on IMDb. I’m not sure season 2’s Tentacles will match this, but the ending definitely did make it a really good experience for me!

Talk about attached at the hip

As already stated above, there is a lot in Tentacles that worked really well for me. The entire relationship element where people meet and fall head over heels while refusing to listen to reason is nothing new. Also, there’s an element of stalking which is always at the top of my mind from watching You on Netflix.

However, since this is an episode of Hulu’s Into the Dark, we all know to expect the unexpected and that certainly worked for me. While the twists are something I’ve seen bits of in other movies and series recently, Tentacles is still very much its own story.

The ending of Tentacles on Hulu *minor spoilers*
For me, the ending of Tentacles made it really good. As a whole, we’re at a 3 out of 5-star rating, but that ending could easily be at a 4 on its own. Since this is the Into the Dark Valentine’s Day episode, we always knew that the relationship would be at the heart of the story and plot twist.

Also, we see a creature with tentacles at the very beginning. But only the shadow of this creature, which leads to the mystery. The minor spoilers I wanted to give away here is that I loved the part of this story that reminded me of the movie Lifechanger. If you know that movie (or have read our Lifechanger review), then this will be a small story.

However, the story in this Into the Dark episode is still very different, so we’re only talking minor spoilers. The ending of Tentacles had a solid pace and some good twists, which is probably why it worked so well for me. I can accept some slow-burn development along the way. Especially since we do need to become familiar with the characters.

Still, when the ending came, I quickly realized that I had missed the faster pacing of the story, which is what the ending delivers on.

Watch the Valentine’s Day Into the Dark episode Tentacles now!
Tentacles was directed by Clara Aranovich who also directed the “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Dying”-episode of Into the Dark. That particular episode has a very impressive 8.3 rating on IMDb. After watching Clara Aranovich’s second episode now, I definitely need to go back and watch that one as well. Yeah, I’ve missed a few along the day.

For this second Into the Dark Valentine’s Day episode, the story was by Nick Antosca and Alexandra Pechman with the latter writing the screenplay. Alexandra Pechman is still getting started as an accredited screenwriter. However, she does also have a Channel Zero episode under her belt (from the very creepy season 4).

Channel Zero was actually created by Nick Antosca, who also came up with the story for this new Into the Dark episode. In between these two series, he also managed to co-create the brilliant The Act mini-series. That one is a true-crime series and has nothing supernatural whatsoever.

The next project from Nick Antosca is the highly anticipated horror movie Antlers which is due out in October 2021 – the pandemic willing. He’s a co-screenwriter on that movie and it’s based on his own short story “The Quiet Boy”. In the meantime, you could fittingly check out this new Into the Dark episode. Enjoy!

The new Tentacles episode of Into the Dark is out on Hulu from February 12, 2021.